Support devices, particularly orthopaedic supports are required in numerous circumstances. For example, supports may be required for any portions of the body, for disabled persons. Insoles may be required for shoes, to provide support for the feet. Joint supports may be required for various joints of the body which may have become injured or defective for any reason.
A support may be required for the head or neck, or back. A seat may be required conforming to the shape of an individual.
In addition, in very many cases supports are required for the hand or hands of a person suffering from some kind of disability, A person with no disability at all, may require to have a handle on an article which conforms precisely to the shape of his or her hand. Persons requiring such hand supports may simply require a shaped grip, which conforms precisely to the shape of their hand. Such persons may be craftsman, or it may be professionals such as surgeons, or may be sportsmen such as players of various games such as racquet sports, golf and the like or other sportsmen such as fishermen, hunters, and the like any of whom may require an article such as the handle of a golf club, fishing rod, or the stock of a weapon, to be shaped to particularly conform to the hand.
In most cases such a person will not be suffering from any disability, but will merely require a precise match between the shape of the hand grip and their hand. Conversely, persons suffering for example from arthritis of the fingers or other joints may require a hand grip of a peculiar shape, to conform to the somewhat deformed shape of their hand resulting from such a disability.
In the case of certain other sports, shoe, or boot liners may be required to conform precisely to the shape of the foot. This is particularly required for example in the sport of skiing where the boot is required to fit snugly under the instep and all over the foot.
Conformable support devices may also be required in many other cases other than orthopaedic situations. Such cases may arise in the case of packaging or containing of precision or scientific instruments, to prevent damage. Other cases may involve the provision of a shaped work support for holding a particular work piece, such as, an item of jewelry for example, while it is being worked upon.
In the past, various different systems have been proposed of more or less considerable complexity and expense. Orthopaedic supports requiring special forming and molding techniques are of course well known and are manufactured routinely from fast setting plaster materials. In other cases, supports have been shaped from bendable metal sections. In other cases, a complex multi-stage formation process is involved including the steps of making a "plug" in the shape of a limb, or portion of the body or an article, and them forming a support of glass fiber reinforced resin material, with or without padding. In other cases supports such as for example gun stocks are actually carved by hand out of wood, in an effort to as far as possible conform to the hand and body of the user.
Clearly, where such a conformable support device is required, it is desirable if it can be manufactured in a simple one step technique out of low cost materials. Preferably it will be made by direct contact with the portion of the body, or the article, which it is intended to support. In this way any loss of accuracy due to the making of intermediate articles such as plugs, molds and the like is avoided.
In the particular field of dentistry, it has been known to utilize settable materials for obtaining a form from the mouth or teeth. These settable materials are then used in a multi-stage process for making dentures, or denture supports, or for example making caps for teeth. Such settable materials are of such a nature that generally speaking they do not set completely hard, and are relatively easily distorted out of shape. Consequently, once the form has been taken from the mouth, the materials must then be treated with considerable care.
In the manufacture of dentures, it is customary for example that some parts of the denture shall be shaped so that support portions of the denture will actually fit on ridges formed by the gums, and thus be retained in position in the mouth.
It is however well known that in these cases the retention formations on the dentures must be made with great care. If they conform precisely to the shape of the ridges and grooves in the gums, then the insertion and removal of the dentures may cause considerable discomfort. On the other hand, if there is any substantial degree of clearance or play, then they may easily become displaced. The use of denture retention materials only partially overcomes this problem.
Clearly, it would be desirable if it were possible to incorporate in such a denture or denture plate, a moldable and settable portion, such that it could be inserted into the mouth, and then shaped to precisely fit the ridges and grooves in the gums, or fit the tongue to provide a secure retention of the denture plate within the mouth, and also to the floor of the mouth and to the bottom of the tongue, and furthermore that it could readily and easily be softened and reshaped and re-molded from time to time or even on a daily basis, as the dentures are inserted and removed, or as often as is required, so as to ensure complete comfort for the wearer at all times.
Similarly, it is clearly desirable to provide a moldable body support for any other part of the body such as in the case of spectacles, which may be required to fit the bridge of the nose, or over the ear, which may readily be molded directly to conform to the shape of the body and will then retain its shape, for as long as is required, but which may be remolded and reshaped from time to time in accordance with the needs of the user.
Helmets may also advantageously be provided with liners conforming to the shape of the skull.
It is clearly desirable to provide such a moldable support for other purposes other than supporting parts of the body whether for orthopaedic purposes or otherwise, and which again will retain its shape, and which may yet be remolded readily from time to time.
The present invention addresses the above problems.